2018 was a special year as you will see as you read further along. The best games were recognised at the Spiel des Jahres 2018 awards, where Germany’s top board game critics highlight excellence in family-friendly game design. The year’s best children’s games are also shown some love.
Alongside the 2018 Spiel des Jahres winners, the victors for the Kinderspiel des Jahres (Children’s Game of the Year) and Kennerspiel des Jahres (Connoisseur’s Game of the Year) awards were also announced. The ceremony also celebrates the achievements of the nominees of each category, showcasing the very best game design and mechanics in the German market.
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Spiel des Jahres 2018
Buy the Azul Board Game
Winner
Azul
The winner of the grand prize at the 2018 Spiel des Jahres, Azul is a beautiful game of patterns and colours, based on Moorish decorative tiles. Players take turns drafting coloured tiles from suppliers to their playing board, creating a stunningly designed palace. Later in the round, players score points based on their placement of the tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are racked up for specific patterns and completing sets: any wasted supplies hurt the player’s score.
Average Playtime: 30-45 minutes
Recommended Age: 8+
Number of Players: 2-4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 1.77/5
Nominees
Luxor
Explore the temple at Luxor. On the hunt for priceless treasures, players lead teams of adventurers through a shifting temple to reach the Pharaohs tomb while collecting treasure along the way. Each player is dealt five cards which dictate movement through the temple. Players advance adventurers by playing the left or rightmost card, landing on tiles with different effects like gathering treasures, gaining keys, or using shortcuts. Points are scored through treasure sets and keys get you into the tomb. The game ends when two adventurers reach the tomb, and the player with the most points from treasures and bonuses wins. The path constantly changes, offering dynamic gameplay.
Average Playtime: 45 minutes
Recommended Age: 8+
Number of Players: 2-4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 1.90/5
Buy the Luxor Board Game
Buy the Mind Card Game
The Mind
The Mind is more than just a game. It’s an experiment, a journey, a team experience in which you can’t exchange information, yet will become one to defeat all the levels of the game. Players will work together to compete levels by playing cards numbered 1-100 in ascending order without communicating. Each level player is dealt a number of cards equal to the level, they must silently play their lowest card when they feel it’s right. If cards are played out of sequence players lose their lives. The goal is to complete all levels without losing your lives.
Average Playtime: 20 minutes
Recommended Age: 8+
Number of Players: 2-4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 1.08/5
Kinderspiel des Jahres 2018
This award recognises the year’s best board games that are targeted towards children.
Winner
Funkelschatz (Dragon’s Breath)
Funkelschatz, known as Dragon’s Breath, was announced as the best children game at the Spiel des Jahres 2018 awards. The exciting game where you play as a dragon kinder, sees four dragon children, Mira, Feo, Luna, and Diego, discover a column of ice filled with sparkling stones but can’t melt it themselves. They enlist their dragon dad’s help, and as he breathes fire, the ice melts, releasing the stones. Players take turns selecting a color and then lifting an ice ring, causing stones to fall. They collect stones that match their chosen color. The goal is to gather the most sparkling stones in your cave by the end of the game. Dad might even collect some treasures too!
Average Playtime: 15-20 minutes
Recommended Age: 5+
Number of Players: 2-4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 1.06/5
Nominees
Emojito!
This party game is full of emotions! Players try to express emotions depicted on cards of living creatures and objects. Sound simple until you must do a frowning firework or a sleepy skunk. This game can have up to 14 players and is best enjoyed in a large group.
Average Playtime: 30 minutes
Recommended Age: 7+
Number of Players: 2-14
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 1.00/5
Panic Mansion
Panic Mansion, also known as Shaky Manor, is a game of dexterity where each player is armed with an eight-room mansion, a brave explorer meeple and a host of other cool components. The objective is to be the first one to complete five challenges by tilting and shaking the box to place the correct objects into one room.
Average Playtime: 10-20 minutes
Recommended Age: 6+
Number of Players: 2-4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 1.09/5
Kennerspiel des Jahres 2018
This award recognises the year’s best games aimed at more experienced gamers through complex gameplay.
Winner
The Quacks of Quedlinburg
The winner of the 2018 Kennerspiel des Jahres award for complex gameplay, The Quacks of Quedlinburg sees player become charlatans, or quack doctors, each concocting a secret brew by adding one ingredient at a time. Each player has their own bag of ingredients chips, each turn players draw chips to add to their pots, the higher the face value of the chip, the further it goes down the pot’s swirling pattern, increasing the potions value. Too many cherry bombs and the pot will explode. Players earn points and coins at the end of each round, for players with exploded pots, they can only earn points OR coins. After nine rounds the player with the most points wins!
Average Playtime: 45 minutes
Recommended Age: 10+
Number of Players: 2-4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 1.94/5
Nominees
Ganz Schön Clever (That’s Pretty Clever)
Choose your dice very carefully in Ganz Schön Clever, to enter them into the matching-coloured areas on your score sheet and put together tricky chain-scoring opportunities to add up points quickly. Don’t disregard the dice you can’t use however, as any dice with lower value than the chosen one can be used by the other players, always keeping everyone in the game.
Average Playtime: 30 minutes
Recommended Age: 8+
Number of Players: 1-4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 1.86/5
Heaven & Ale
You have been assigned to lead an ancient monastery, cool, and it’s a brewery, awesome! In Heaven & Ale, you have to overcome the harsh competition of your fellow players. There is a fine balance between upgrading your cloister’s garden and harvesting the resources you need to fill your barrels. Only those who manage to keep a cool head can win the race for the best beer!
Average Playtime: 60-90 minutes
Recommended Age: 12+
Number of Players: 2-4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 3.18/5
Special Prize 2018
This isn’t seen every year in the Spiel des Jahres awards, but we were lucky enough to get a special prize in 2018 award by the jury for more complex games.
Winner
Pandemic Legacy: Season 2
The 2018 Spiel des Jahres Special Prize Winner luckily wasn’t foreshadowing what beheld us in the future. In Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 the world ended 71 years ago, with a plague that came out of nowhere, and nothing to stop it the world did its best but not enough. This game is an epic cooperative game that is always working against you, with actions you make in one round carrying over into future games, no two worlds are ever alike.
Average Playtime: 60 minutes
Recommended Age: 14+
Number of Players: 2-4
Difficulty (BGG Weight): 3.26
Add the Best Games from the Spiel des Jahres 2018 Awards to Your Collection Today!
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